Bitcoin Piooner, Hal Finney and Eight Years Remembrance

[348Judah]

Yesterday 28th August, 2022 marks it exactly 8 years after the departure of a great bitcoin pioneer and hero Hal Finney who died on the 28th August, 2014, he was born on the  4th of May 1956 in Coalinga California United States, He lived 56 years old before his death in Scottsdale Arizona United States but his impact in the world of digital currency (bitcoin) remains evergreen, as he was popularly known to be the first recipient of a bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto in the history of bitcoin and aside that, he was also the developer that master the technology for PGP corporation.

Hal Finney is indeed a great Cypherpunk who has remained commited and a devoted software engineer, his coast of coverage where without boarders in the world of digital technology, he has contributed in many progressive projects and serve his best initiatives unto humanity before his departure, he's a coder that stand the test of time who has worked in performing research all through his lifetime and of no doubt he is privacy conscious in his doings which is part of what we all benefits from till today in a decentralized network, not until a deadly Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) came to take away his life and place him in the cold hands of death.
May his soul continue to rest in peace and his legacy remains for generations!.
Hal Bitcointalk Profile

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[PrivacyG]

8 years since 2014!  I feel old.  How does time pass so quickly?

Bless his soul.  He will always be one of the biggest and most well known figures of Bitcoin and a mystery due to the speculative association with the identity of Nakamoto.  A great and very intelligent guy nonetheless.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

[PowerGlove]

Yeah, Hal was awesome!

His final thread is very much worth reading: Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney)

Edit: You should fix the small typo you have in the topic title.

[ChiBitCTy]

Hal is an absolute legendary member in the bitcoin community and we were lucky to have him here for some time. Hal was obviously such a big part of bitcoins uprising and I always find it fascinating how he was just one of very few who took bitcoin seriously from the get go when Satoshi dropped the white paper. Wish he was still around, I wonder what bitcoin might look like if he was!

[DapanasFruit]

I am sure that people who are deep into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency somehow cam across with the name of Hal Finney, aside of course from the most famous Satoshi Nakamoto. Hal lived a very exciting and pioneering time for the world of cryptocurrency and his contributions for its eventual development and popularity should never be forgotten...he is one of the few we can consider as a Bitcoin Hero who paved the way for the things happening right now and into the future.

[Dave1]

And who will forget this tweet, probably one of the earliest tweet about Bitcoin:



https://twitter.com/halfin/status/1110302988

So yes, Hal is one of the pioneer and it's just sad that he was taken away from us very early. But at least we have seen his writings in this community and other social media and you can see how he is really into bitcoin very early because he understand what "anonymity" means. He even have tweets about reducing CO2 emissions from bitcoin mining. He and others are really ahead of their time.

[mk4]

The man, the myth, the legend.

Let's hope that his frozen body(cryogenics)[1] would amount to something some time in the future.

[1] https://www.wired.com/2014/08/hal-finney/

[Kakmakr]

They say he worked right to the end, coding for Bitcoin until he died. What a legend.... and also privileged to be one of the first people to work with Satoshi Nakamoto. (not a lot of people had that privilege)

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) took his body, but it could not take his legacy. A lot of people go out of this world, without making any significant impact on the world, but Hal Finney left it with the knowledge that he improved a lot of people's lives. 

Rest in Peace ... Hal Finney!

[Accardo]

I found his wife on twitter she last updated her running bitcoin logs on January 10th, the Running bitcoin challenge hashtag is alive but not frequently updated. Fran Finney is an amazing woman and she is doing a lot to keep the legacy of Hal Finney.





The running bitcoin sculpture created by Marcus Connor last year for the remembrance of Hal Finney on his birthday, looks much more like the way Finney ran for bitcoin in his days.





 "Lifetime Achievement Award" Hal received at PGP in October 2009. (Phil Zimmermann on left)


Hal Finney with Fran Finney



The Marathon man




I guess a thread about Hal Finney's remembrance won't be complete without amazing pictures of Hal and his Wife Fran being shared on the thread to help us have a virtual memory of him.  A great man in the bitcoin, cryptography and privacy department of the internet.

Got the pictures from Fran Finney's official twitter page.

[aoluain]

Very nice to see images of him again.

He was such an influence in the cryptography space and obviously had an influence
on Satoshi's work to create Bitcoin before launch while he was a 'member' of the cypherpunks.

What a legend

Hal Finney
Cypherpunk, Creator or RPOW, PGP 2.0, Involvement in the creation of Bitcoin and the first person to receive Bitcoin tokens from Satoshi
Wiki Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist)
Bitcointalk Posts: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2436;sa=showPosts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/halfin

[batang_bitcoin]

It's sort of giving that proud feeling that he's been here in the forum together with satoshi. And now, all of us here are enjoying the early works that he has done for bitcoin and for the community. Although, there would be speculations that he really is the actual satoshi but let's just separate the two personalities that have both changed the lives of many which includes me. Much respect for Hal for being selfless and for contributing a lot to the bitcoin project that has been once being doubted by many. But look at where it is right now, changed millions of lives and still going on.

[FanEagle]

He is one of the few people I believe could be real satoshi. He was the first person Satoshi "talked" with, which I believe could be all by himself, looking at the last ever message given by Satoshi ever? It was before Hal died, and after he did, we have never heard from Satoshi ever again and he never publicly did anything.

I know that it is not going to be that easy, and I know that it is quite a tough thing to accept that maybe satoshi is dead, but that is what I believe. Of course it is a possibility that we might be wrong, but that doesn't change the fact that we haven't heard from Satoshi since then, so why? Maybe it is actually true and not a mistake.

[Davidvictorson]

If Hal were here, I would tell him these exact words - Thank you Hal for birthing crypto. Thank you for making the world economic system better and for giving us the opportunity to have a beautiful future to look forward to. The world is a better place because of you. Hal is a definition of a true legend. He was way ahead of his time and he stuck to his convictions about the financial system.

[hugeblack]

I thought he had ALS since his childhood and not in the last years of his life, and I also didn't think he was a developer but a technology explorer.
In general, his achievement, optimism, and words are very motivating and encouraging, and I hope that the entire Bitcoin community will be as well.

[hd49728]

I thought he had ALS since his childhood and not in the last years of his life, and I also didn't think he was a developer but a technology explorer.

Not sure when he got this disease but it becomes worse and worse when he gets older.

In general, his achievement, optimism, and words are very motivating and encouraging, and I hope that the entire Bitcoin community will be as well.

Hal Finney and Stephen Hawkins live are very motivational stories for the young. "If there is a will, there is a way" as Albert Einstein wrote, they found own ways to live and contribute with their passions.

Furthermore, when we are talking about Hal Finney, don't forget about Satoshi Nakamoto and his lesson. They are all models we can learn from their contributions.

[Darker45]

Rest in peace to the man who partly made Bitcoin possible. Not only was Hal the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction, which was sent by Satoshi himself/herself/themselves, he was there right from the start, way back when Bitcoin was unknown to the public and was only discussed among a handful of individuals. So this venerable man must have been one of the few who helped Satoshi build Bitcoin, polished everything before it was finally released to the public.

[mk4]

In general, his achievement, optimism, and words are very motivating and encouraging, and I hope that the entire Bitcoin community will be as well.

"Since we’re all rich with bitcoins, or we will be once they're worth a million dollars like everyone expects, we ought to put some of this unearned wealth to good use."

Really says a lot about him — even calling it unearned. Also taking note how much of a privacy nightmare the internet is today, it takes a real optimist — a person with such a positive mindset to be optimistic.

[Bitstar_coin]

A Legend, a true pioneer in every sense, his contribution to this great tech will never be forgotten, Hal was the closest thing any bitcoiner has to know satoshi the true genius.
He dedicates his life to contributing to a tech that will revolutionize the entire financial system and that is a true achievement. I hope he finds peace in the great beyond because his legacy will live on.

[Wiwo]

The man, the myth, the legend.

Let's hope that his frozen body(cryogenics)[1] would amount to something sometime in the future.

[1] https://www.wired.com/2014/08/hal-finney/

Yeah, maybe technology and innovation will offer us the chance to bid on his frozen body I guess that will cost billions of dollars in Bitcoin, am interested in reading the writing on his skin, I guess there will be so many encryption and codes written on them. He is indeed a legend just like Satoshi is there will always be remembered 8 years, such an early departure considering the years of Bitcoin's existence.

[Zlantann]

Yeah, Hal was awesome!

His final thread is very much worth reading: Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney)

Edit: You should fix the small typo you have in the topic title.

Thanks, PowerGlove for including that link in your reply. I read the thread and indeed I was motivated not only by his contribution to Bitcoin but by his courage and doggedness. At a time when nobody believed in Bitcoin, he believed and engaged in the unbelievable. Not captivated by the get-rich-quick syndrome that is currently ravaging the world he patiently waited for the reward of his input in the development of Bitcoin. I am greatly motivated by his last days that was very challenging due to a deadly disease. Regardless of this illness, he still ensured that he was productive even when he had every reason to be otherwise. Indeed he is worth celebrating every year.